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Mon, Feb. 6th, 2012, 01:43 pm Chilli Maximus
So, I made amazingly awesome chilli. Kind of random; picked up a few recipes, smushed them together, got some stuff slightly our of order, but irrespective, the final result was really quite delicious. Chilli Maximus3 habaneros, finely diced 2 extra-large fresh jalepenos, finely diced 1 green capsicum, diced 2 brown onions, diced 2 cans of diced tomatoes with oregano & garlic 3 gloves of fresh garlic, diced and smashed 3+ tsp of garlic mush from a jar 2 fresh tomatoes, diced 1 can of red kidney beans, drained 1 can of butter beans, drained 1 can of 3?4? bean mix, drained 400gm-500gm of pork/veal mixed mince 1 bottle of beer 100+gm of bacon, diced 1+ tsp of paprika 1 tblspon of oregano 1+ tsp of cumin 1 tsp fresh black pepper 1 tsp sea salt hefty dash of liquid smoke tbpsn (?) of worstershire sauce Cooking in 3 stages: 1) cook the bacon, set aside, save the grease 2) mix up a bunch of oregano and pepper in with the mince; cook the mince, onions & capsicum together in the bacon grease 3) put everything into a big pot and slowly simmer/cook for more than 2 hours. Longer, better. A few points: longer cooking is better, softens up the vegies. Smaller chunks of vegies means they soften up faster. Extra vegies are perfectly fine, even semi-standard things like corn or carrot, but really only best as filler, and make sure you cook them longer to really soften them up, so they don't overpower the flavour when you bite into them. More meat also works. The winning parts of the recipe in my opinion are the habanero chillis, garlic and liquid smoke (not too much!). Everything else is a balancing act.
Cocktail:Not my recipe, and I can't remember the name, but here it is: 1 oz Honey Liqueur (American Honey) 1 oz Vodka fill almost to the top with cranberry juice splash of cola Quite tasty! Nachos Frugrande!Part one: the quacamole 1 avacado 1/2 red onion, finely chopped 1 tomato, finely chopped 2 jalepenos, finely chopped 1 habenero, finely chopped 1 tspn cumin heavy dash of black pepper and salt heavy dash of mixed spices (oregano, thyme and... basil?) Part two: the nachos corn chips cheese (I used colby, but there are other, sharper cheeses which could be used - I recommend a mix of 2 cheeses, if possible) 1 red onion, finely chopped (half on bottom layer, half on top) 1 jalepeno, finely sliced (half on bottom layer, half on top) 1/2 yellow capsicum, finely chopped (half on bottom layer, half on top) 2-3 hot pickeled peppers, finely sliced, sprinkled on top. jar of salsa (sprinkle, as best you can, under the cheese layers a few good spoonfuls... use maybe 1/3-1/2 a jar in total.) Part three, the making assemble the bottom layer. Microwave for ~2 minutes, no more. assemble the top layer. microwave for ~1-2 minutes, no more. put in a oven, and cook until cheese is all melty and bubbly. Remove, and put on a bit dollop of quac and top with a big dollop of sour cream. PUT IN FACE AND ENJOY.
An early example everyone in marketing, advertising, design, semoitics, languages, anthropology and culture* is usually exposed to is the Gerber baby food fiasco in Africa. *by the by, anyone who doesn't think these areas are all different facets of the exact same thing is an idiot. Short version: in Africa, high rate of illiteracy. Solution when selling goods: put a picture of what is in the can on the outside. Can of beans? Picture of beans. Anyway, so Gerber sold baby food, and started in the USA. They starting shipping their product to Africa. Their product comes in a jar... with a picture of a baby on the side. It didn't sell. Wrong message to the wrong people. Wrong.
Wed, Jul. 20th, 2011, 10:21 am (corn) Chips
Have you ever noticed... when you're eating a bag of chips (primarily applies to corn chips), when you're near the start of the bag and you drop one on the floor, you put it in the bin, but as the bag's contents deplete the value of the chips rises - completely in opposition to how full you are, or sick of eating chips, so much so, that crumbs become awesome, and broken chip corners which drop become rare preciouses which must be saved. Amusingly, in retrospect, one could use this as analogy for our usage of oil... but maybe my mind is wandering again.
Yet another thing that pisses me off is how so many academics/pseudoacademics are against the use Wikipedia in any shape or form. They refuse to draw the distinction between citing Wikipedia directly (as if it were the original source)*, and using it as a tool. *which you should never do, since according to the quality management guidelines, Wikipedia should have no original content. Instead of ranting further, this brief guide is fairly decent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBbKDcu_wfg&feature=related
Note: This is kind of in response to this: Why can't I just Google. Found here: http://libguides.murdoch.edu.au/psych
Dear LazyWeb, I need a free, easy to use bug tracking program/software, specifically for a small helpdesk environment. Must be able to take email input and have easy to read/present reports (per tech). After some sorting, reading and pondering, I have potentially narrowed down my choices to the following: Opinions? Preferences? Personal experiences? Alternate suggestions?
A big thanks to my old friend Karl's wife's recipe for delicious traditional mexican salsa. Made my first bowl of it today and it was /really/ good.  For everyone else, ( the recipe is below the cut. )
I have a confession to make. I like McDonalds now. I didn't always, in fact, this is something which has only really changed over the past couple of years. So, what happened? Well, McDonalds has crap burgers, average fries and an overpriced menu. Mmm, their apple pies though... so good... ( Then, a few things changed... )( Now, sure, 90% of Maccas' menu is still shite. )So, what's there to hate about Maccas now? Sure, 90% of menu is crap, but I've covered that. Lack of option X? So eat elsewhere, that's not so much a failing on their part as a difference in preference on yours. To clarify - when it comes to just the "regular" burgers I GREATLY prefer Whoppers over most all Maccas burgers. But just because I now like Maccas doesn't mean I dislike any others - I am in no way stating any order of preference in this rambling diatribe; just a new like. Old McDonalds: nothing special, like any other fast food place. Dislike. New McDonalds: cheap AND sensitive to changing trends (health, animal welfare, etc). Like.
While riding to work today, a bird flew right in front of me/past me on my bike. I thought from the flash of orangish/brownish it was simply a wattlebird being territorial over a smaller bird (a wren? honey eater?) But when I glanced over to have a better look - it was a small raptor of some sort, and just caught the smaller bird mid-flight! Something I have never before seen in the wild.. wow. I believe it was a Little Falcon:  I am rather enjoying the sights on the way to work (along the foreshore, over the narrows) - lots of juvenile ducks, goslings and cygnets. If only it weren't for the blasted headwinds! |